Speech and Language Therapy using intensive interaction and music

Sean is 13 and I have been working with him for 5 years. He came to me with a diagnosis of Autism he was nonverbal, low responsive and highly resistant to direct intervention but his eyes were alive with communicative intent.

Over time he made significant progress, cognitively and in his communication. His concentration and focus improved exponentially and his resitance to direct intervenion began to fall away. His understanding which I believe had always been good became more obvious and slowly but surely he began making sounds, pointing with his hand and even making signs. As time went on it became clear to me however he was experiencing severe sensory and motorplanning issues and this was getting in the way of me making further advancements with Sean so I referred him to an Occupational Therapist. His proress with the OT has been phenomenal and this input has been critical to the progress he continues to make with me today.

In this edited down version of the usual hour long session, I am working with Sean to draw his direct attention to speech sounds his and mine and ultimately to grow his awareness of its communicative potential.

From very early on Sean showed an astonishing awareness of music and its rythmn.Within a therapeutic framework using intensive interaction, I have exploited this strength inorder to tune Sean's mind into the sounds coming from him and from me, thereby setting the stage to gaining access to the linguistic centres of his brain.

You can see from this video the power of his communicative intention and the intentionality of his use of sounds. However more significantly the focus he is showing as I use words and his very immediate responses vocally and nonvocally.

Its been a joy to work with Sean he is amasing and he has an amasing family.

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Geraldine Speech&LanguageTherapy Liberated